The report by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis said white supremacists and anti-fascist "antifa" extremists had battled earlier in Charlottesville at a white nationalist rally on Mar. 13 and a Ku Klux Klan gathering July 7.
FILE – In this Aug. 12, 2017 file photo, white nationalist demonstrators clash with a counter demonstrator as he throws a newspaper box at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va. Weeks before a statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, became a flashpoint in the nation’s struggle over race and history, it already was a focus of emotional debate in the state’s Republican primary election.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
FILE – In this Aug. 12, 2017 file photo, white nationalist demonstrators use shields as they guard the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va. The American Civil Liberties Union is reeling from criticism for its role in defending the right of white supremacists’ right to march in Charlottesvile. After that rally left a counter protester dead, some critics said the ACLU had blood on its hands.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
FILE – In this Aug. 12, 2017 file photo, rescue personnel help injured people who were hit when a car ran into a large group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. After James Alex Fields Jr. was accused of using his car to kill 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injure 19 others who were staging a counter-demonstration, the American Civil Liberties Union has been faced with an angry backlash for defending white supremacists’ right to march in Charlottesville and is confronting a suggestion in its ranks that was once considered heresy: Maybe some speech isn’t worth defending.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
FILE-In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 file photo, a white nationalist demonstrator, bloodied after a clash with a counter demonstrator, talks on the radio receiver at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va. How Virginia chooses to remember its past is still a highly combustible issue, as shown by the deadly violence that erupted at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville last weekend over plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
AP Photo/Steve Helber, File
FILE – In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 file photo, white nationalist demonstrators walk into the entrance of Lee Park surrounded by counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va. Conservative activists and leftist counter-protesters prepare for a showdown on Boston Common, Saturday, Aug. 19, that could draw thousands a week after a demonstration in Virginia turned deadly. Boston’s rally is the first potentially large and racially charged gathering in a major U.S. city since a car plowed into counter-demonstrators in Charlottesville, killing a woman and injuring scores of others.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
A white nationalist demonstrator walks into Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Hundreds of people chanted, threw punches, hurled water bottles and unleashed chemical sprays on each other Saturday after violence erupted at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
A counter demonstrator uses a lighted spray can against a white nationalist demonstrator at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Former Louisiana State Representative David Duke arrives to give remarks after a white nationalist protest was declared an unlawful assembly, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
(Shaban Athuman /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
Shaban Athuman /Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
In this Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 photo, responders work with victims at the scene where a man identified by police as James Alex Fields Jr., plowed a car into a crowd of people who had gathered to protest a white supremacist rally earlier in the day, in Charlottesville, Va. Police charged Fields with second-degree murder and other counts.
(Go Nakamura via AP)
Go Nakamura via AP
Rescue personnel help an injured woman after a car ran into a large group of protesters after an white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
A Black Lives Matter New York demonstrator holds a sign to counter white nationalist demonstrators at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police dressed in riot gear ordered people to disperse after chaotic violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protestors.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
A counter demonstrator is splashed with water after he was hit by pepper spray from an white nationalist demonstrator after he threw a water bottle at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police dressed in riot gear ordered people to disperse after chaotic violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protestors.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
A counter demonstrator throws a water bottle at an white nationalist demonstrator at the entrance to Lee Park in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police dressed in riot gear ordered people to disperse after chaotic violent clashes between white nationalists and counter protestors.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Virginia State Police cordon off an area around the site where a car ran into a group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Rescue personnel help injured people after a car ran into a large group of protesters after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
A vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them. /The Daily Progress via AP)
A vehicle reverses after driving into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them.
(Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP)
Ryan M. Kelly/The Daily Progress via AP
Alexander Holtz, 7, of Ashburn, Va., draws a heart on sidewalk in Charlottesville, Va., Friday, Aug. 18, 2017, near the site where Heather Heyer was killed. Heyer was struck by a car while protesting a white nationalist rally on Saturday Aug. 12.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
A note and flowers are left at the site where Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville, Va., Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Heyer was struck by a car while protesting a white nationalist rally on Saturday Aug.,12.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
Lily Holtz, 9, of Ashburn, Va, places flowers, as her brother Alexander, 7, and mother, Gracia, look on while they visit the site where Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville, Va., Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Heyer was struck by a car while protesting a white nationalist rally on Saturday Aug.,12.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
A notes and flowers form a memorial in Charlottesville, Va., on Friday, Aug. 18, 2017 at the site where Heather Heyer was killed. Heyer was struck by a car while protesting a white nationalist rally on Saturday Aug. 12.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
AP Photo/Cliff Owen
The Hotlz family, of Ashburn, Va., visit the site where Heather Heyer was killed in Charlottesville, Va., Friday, Aug. 18, 2017. Heyer was struck by a car while protesting a white nationalist rally on Saturday Aug. 12, 2017.
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
WASHINGTON — Three days before the deadly Aug. 12 white nationalist rally and counterprotests in Charlottesville, the Department of Homeland Security issued a confidential warning that the event had the potential to be “among the most violent to date.”
The Aug. 9 assessment, labeled “law enforcement sensitive,” was obtained by Politico, and concluded escalating clashes between white supremacists and anarchists made Charlottesville a powder keg.
The report by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis said white supremacists and anti-fascist “antifa” extremists had battled earlier in Charlottesville at a white nationalist rally on Mar. 13 and a Ku Klux Klan gathering July 7.
Online rhetoric before the Unite The Right rally had escalated, according to the report.
“Anarchist extremists and white supremacist extremists online are calling on supporters to be prepared for or to instigate violence at the 12 August rally,” DHS warned.
Charlottesville police, the lead public safety agency during the rally, have been scrutinized for their preparation and execution of public safety plans.
A Charlottesville woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when a James Alex Fields, Jr., who had traveled from Ohio to Virginia for the rally, allegedly drove his car into a group of counter-protesters. Fields is charged with second-degree-murder and several other felonies.
Charlottesville’s city manager Maurice Jones and Corinne Geller, communications director for Virginia State Police, said both agencies were aware of the potential for violence, and had planned for worse-case scenarios.
The city of Charlottesville has hired a former federal prosecutor to do what it calls “an independent, external review of the City’s response” to the Aug. 12 event. State Police are doing their own after-action report.
Immediately after Heyer’s death, the U.S. Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into the deadly car attack.
The Charlottesville City Council will hold an unusual closed-door session Wednesday, to “discuss the performance and discipline of an elected official.”
In the weeks since the rally Mayor Mike Signer and City Manager Maurice Jones have waged a war of words about preparations and police handling of the white nationalist rally and counterprotests.
Signer has said he was shut out of security briefings by police chief Al Thomas, who reports to the city manager. Jones said Signer threatened his job during the rally.
While the Wednesday closed-door meeting was officially ordered by the mayor, sources say Signer will be the focus of the discussion, and possible discipline.
Neal Augenstein has been a general assignment reporter with WTOP since 1997. He says he looks forward to coming to work every day, even though that means waking up at 3:30 a.m.
